donāt just pay it. do not automatically pay the hospital bill when you receive it. call your health insurance provider and POLITELY say, āexcuse me, i just received a bill for $1200 for my hospital visit/ER visit/etc., is that the correct amount iām supposed to pay?ā because hospitals bill you before your health insurance and they willĀ take your money no matter how the amount due may change based on your health insurance looking at it. 90% of the time, if your health insurance is in any way involved in the payment of that bill, you do not have to pay as much as the hospital is billing you for. call your health insurance provider first, and POLITELY request clarification, always remember that the person you are talking to is human and this is just their job, and then you will very likely find out you actually only owe $500.
donāt shout at anyone about it, donāt get mad, just understand that this is The Way Things Are right now and call your health insurance provider before paying the bill your hospital just sent you. thereās a chance the hospital bill might be correct, true, but call your health insurance provider.
THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT. after my car accident last year the hospital billed me ~$8000. They sent me letters asking me to pay, and I called them back saying my insurance was processing the claim. This is also what I told the collection agency when they kept calling me about the $1000 emergency room fee (billed separately from the hospital fee, mind you). Once everything got straightened out, all I was actually liable for was my $200 emergency copay.
!!!!!!! things my ass didnāt know !!!!!!!!
Yes this is a life lesson my adulting ass didnāt know I needed and Iām out 80 bucks for an anti-nausea pill. ššššš
Reblogging for American friends.
Also, it is important [for people receiving medical care in the USA] to carefully read all of the items on the medical bill and look for errors and overcharges. I know that the normal feelings of avoidance and dread can make it hard to look at scary hospital bills, and thatās okay! But as the OP mentions, private orgs like hospitals donāt monitor overpayment of bills – they are motivated to charge you extra – and it is basically impossible to get your money back. Read the bill carefully and make sure that the charges are correct, using the links below for help if you need. If they havenāt sent you an itemized list, you can ask for one. Sometimes you will be charged extra for items or treatment you didnāt receive. Most people donāt know that you can dispute medical bills! But in 2009, Consumer Reports stated that 8 out of 10 medical bills scrutinized by a watchdog had errors, and generally you are not obligated to pay for someone elseās error.
You may be charged for using medication that you actually brought into the hospital with you – thatās easy to dispute! You may be charged for the consumables used during your stay such as sheets, gloves, gowns, etc – the hospital should actually cover that under its running budget. You may be charged for a brand name drug if the generic was available for cheaper – the links below explain how and when you can dispute this. You may be charged a surprisingly expensive āoral administration feeā (where a nurse puts pills for you to take in a little clean paper cup and then hands it to you) but thatās worth disputing if you were actually able to take the pill out of a bottle and put it in your own mouth. And so on.
High key hope this site doesnāt get deleted. I know itās probably nothing but I just realized we have the voltron kin and skeleton stealers quarantined in here and letting them out onto other sites would be chaos. A 21st century Pandoraās box
please make sure that wherever youāre at in life, you donāt treat it like a transitory period. donāt waste your college years wishing to already be graduated & have a job. donāt waste your single years wishing for someone to be in love with. if/when those things come, they will come in due time and they will be good. but there is nothing like looking back and feeling empty because you wasted literal years ignoring what you had because you were hoping for something better. while itās important to better yourself and reach for your goals, donāt neglect the present because thatās where you are now and itās your now that determines your future.Ā
-waikiki was once a taro patch that fed all the native hawaiians on that side of the island.
-oahus current population numbers were once all native hawaiians. Now they comprise less than 5% of it.
-native hawaiians comprise less than 15% of the total population of hawaii but are most of the homeless and well over half the prison populace over non-violent petty offenses.
-native hawaiians have the lowest life expectancy, lowest income and least chances for education out of damn near all ethnic groups in the u.s.
ForLoveFromFear 